In Ones Care
by Thane'sSiha
Summary: First Contact War AU where the war has been going on for almost ten years. Jane Shepard finds a lone tirian after a battle and must take care of him in order to find information. But what happens when everything seems to not be adding up with him?
1. Found

The hardest part was sleeping at night. If anyone asked her, that's what she would tell someone about the war. Sleep never came easy, not to her or to any of the other soldiers. Nights were never for resting for them. They used the nights to shut their eyes, but not sleep. They used the nights to talk to one another about their families and their fear of death. They used their nights to catch up on reading and to be intimate with one another. Never for sleep.

Tonight was another night where she lie awake in her bed on her back, her arms crossed over her chest like a corpse. She'd grown accustomed to lying like this because she knew that someday soon she would stay in this position permanently. It was morbid, but it was soothing at the same time, knowing that when she died she wouldn't find her final resting position uncomfortable.

The sound of bullets firing rang out in the back of her head. It was a sound that she knew well and one that she would never forget. The constant gun firing, the way the clips smelled after they were finished. The way the ground had looked, all desolate and barren after another bomb had been detonated onto it. She wouldn't forget any it. It was a part of her now.

She craned her neck to look at the bunk next to hers. It was empty. The bed had been made to perfect military standards and not a thing had been changed since this morning. The person that slept in that bed had died that very morning after making his bed. Like many others, he perished out on the battlefield, only for his body to be cremated like the rest of them.

His ashes would be sent to his family. He had a little sister he spoke of often. Apparently she admired him very much and had intentions of joining the military when she turned of age. Shepard wondered how that young girl would feel when he brother turned up to her in a military issued urn. Would she be sad? Would she still wish to join the military?

Jane Shepard had no family, as far as she could tell. No mother, no father, no brothers or sisters. They'd found her in the slums of Earth, crying behind a long abandoned factory building covered in soot and dirt. She was about three months when they found her, with no traces of anyone around. No one came to claim her, although, that was common for children born into the poverty of Earth. She was placed immediately into the system, moving from orphanage to orphanage and foster home to foster home.

Eventually, she grew tired of the constant moving around and the government grew tired of taking care of her. The moment she turned eighteen she was kicked out onto the streets. It was bound to happen eventually, but it saddened her at just how quickly she was thrown out to make room for other children.

There was a war still raging on, by the time she'd turned eighteen it had been going for a solid six years with no signs of stopping. With nowhere else to turn she turned to the alliance and allowed herself to fight. What more could she do?

She'd never been very patriotic or anything like that, but it was a warm bed and hot food. It was better than scavenging or degrading herself. She had the mindset that if she died she died and if she was lived she lived. That was that. Nothing more mattered to her.

It was now coming up on her third year of fighting the war and the ninth year that the turians and humans had been at each other's throats. Tides were constantly turning in both of their favors, sometimes the turians, sometimes the humans. Sometimes, it was neither of them.

There were talks of peace, but there were always talks of peace. It grew to the point where no one believed that there would ever be peace and the fighting would continue on for ages with no end until both races ended each other entirely.

As far as she knew, that was what was going to happen and she found herself not caring in the slightest. The turians didn't appear to be the easiest race to talk to, but the humans weren't very understanding either. Both sides were demanding too much, but neither wanted to compromise. Without compromise no one would be happy and the Galaxy would be left in shambles.

But she wasn't a diplomat, so her opinion on the matter didn't have any meaning to anyone. She was just a gun for use anyways.

The room was awoken to the sound of shouting and bullet fire outside, except this time, the sound wasn't in her head. The turians were here and they were just sitting with their pants down.

She hopped from the bed and landed a tad bit ungraciously onto the floor, her socks slipping against it slightly. Her and about a hundred other people ran to their lockers, pulling out their armor and weapons and trying to armor up as quick as possible, but there was no was to be quick during a sneak attack. They'd initially come to this planet in hopes to sneak up on the turians, but that obviously didn't turn out right.

Many times she expressed with her Commander that they were too close to the turians, that if they looked out a window they would see them and they'd be killed. He only looked at her and said: easy pickings. And that was true. Now they were the easy pickings for the turians who were known to not be merciful.

She could feel the ground shake when their boots hit it in an almost unison. She watched them fall from the turians well placed bullets and knew that she'd have to watch the turians gaze closely to know of she was one of ones that would soon take a bullet.

She ducked behind a large rock, gasping for breath. The air on the planet was thin and it didn't help that she was moving too fast for her body to adjust. Her lungs felt as if they weren't getting any air, but she still took deep breaths, coming out of cover shoot a well placed shot on a turian.

Very few humans knew anything about turian anatomy, she was one of those that didn't know a damn about it, but what she did know was that turians had heads and they died when shot there. That's all she had to know about fighting, no fancy moves or anything like that, just point and shoot.

The turian forces fell faster than she expected, they were surprisingly outnumbered, despite the large base that they'd come from. She knew that that base wasn't limited to such a small amount of turians, but no one else seemed to come out. Not even a scout or another swarm of turians.

She turned back to look at her Commander who was trying to estimate the amount of casualties for both sides. He met her gaze and shook his head, his way of telling her to not try and go to the base. She too had a bad feeling about it and was grateful that her and the commander were on the same page for once.

Instead, she took to walking around the battlefield. She was mainly looking for supplies that could be used. Humans and turians couldn't eat the same food, she once watched a soldier eat a bite of turian fruit, the soldier swelled up then suffocated and died. That's when they learned that turian food was no good for them and decided to leave it behind.

It was mainly thermal clips she was looking for. They ran short all the time because most people didn't know how to save their shots. It was to be expected, she was one of the few people in her squad who'd been fighting the war for so long, most of the others were fresh new faces from Earth who thought the war would be anything like the movies they watched or the games they played. They didn't know any better because they weren't taught any better.

She stepped on the bodies that littered the ground. Some human, some turian. She didn't find it disrespectful to step on them, she didn't want to move them and they were dead anyways. It wasn't like their bodies weren't just going to be cremated and shipped off somewhere.

Her foot landed on the hand of a fallen turian officer, that was normal, but wasn't normal was the noise he made. Almost a soft whine, like a door opening or a dog begging, it was barely noticeable, but she heard it and she stopped straight in the tracks, lifting her head from the ground and listening to the sounds around her. One of the bodies was still alive.

She quickly pulled her pistol from its holster and spun around on her heels, being greeted by a turian issued pistol. She stared down the barrel of the gun, but couldn't see his face due to the turian helmet he wore and she knew that he couldn't make out her features as well, this was a dark planet after all. But they still looked at each other, waiting for the other to move. He was still sitting, she was standing. She expected the height she had over him would make her more likely to kill him, but his aim was perfectly between her eyes.

Her gaze shifted to his arm which hung limply at his side. He'd been shot, which was likely why he was playing dead. He didn't have enough strength to retreat. She noticed how large the pool of blue blood next to him was. If turians were anything like humans, she knew that he would be weak from that amount of blood loss. She was at an advantage.

"State your name and rank," she spoke as harsh as she possibly could.

"Who says I have to listen to you," he retorted.

"I do. I'm not the one who's injured and my squad didn't retreat and leave me behind,"

He scoffed at her statement, but didn't drop his gun. It waived for a quick second like he was considering it, but it went back still just as fast.

"I could kill you right now,"

"And risk my squad finding you?" She began, "You're lucky it was me who found you and not someone else."

"And why's that?"

She pulled out a pair of omni cuffs she carried on her, "Because, I don't care enough to torture you."

It was always strange that the commander made her carry cuffs on her, but now she knew why he did. They were for situations just like this one, only she didn't expect herself to be put into one. Instead, she'd expected the cuffs the just sit there at her side forever, never to be touched. She wasn't that lucky.

"Come peacefully," she said, holding the cuffs up.

"Why would I do that?" He grunted.

"I can kill you just as easily as I can cuff you,"

His gaze shifted from the cuffs to her face as he weighed his options. Personally, she would've just chosen to die if she were in that situation. She'd rather die honorably than live a prisoner, but some people had things to live for, unlike her, who was just living because her sense of self preservation was too strong.

He dropped his gun with a clunk and lifted his wrist up to her, turning his head away like he didn't want to watch the effects of his actions.

She slapped the cuffs onto his wrist and tightened them to the right amount, "Need help up?"

"Not from you," he grunted.

He stood from his spot on the ground and it was then that she realized how much his height loomed over her. She'd never been this close to a turian before, so she had no idea how tall they truly were. She always guessed that they were the same height as humans, but apparently she was wrong. The perspective just made them look smaller. His height almost intimidated her. Almost.

Awkwardly, she gave him a general pat down, not bothering to scan him from chips because she knew that processing would do it. Instead, she was looking for weapons and clips, anything she could use or anything he could use to get free.

She found another pistol on him as well as a hunting knife and a multitude of thermal clips. Jane held onto these items, knowing that as a prisoner he would have no use for them. They would be for her, for later when she needed them. Especially since the military no longer issued knives.

They walked back the human base which was basically empty. Everyone was clearing out their things to he loaded onto a ship and leave. It was too dangerous to stay on the planet now that the turians knew where the were. They'd probably move to another planet to provide support for a squad fighting on the front lines.

She didn't bother cleaning out her foot locker. There was nothing in there that she needed. Other people carried charms or pictures of their loved ones, but she had nothing of the sort. There was her casuals, but those would be issued out again for her, so she had no use for them.

The turian walked three paces behind her, not speaking, but she could tell he was looking around. She wondered if human bases were anything similar to turians bases, but doubted that she wanted to find out.

As she stepped onto the ship, people stared at her and the turian that she had with her. It was the most attention she'd gotten in a long time, it made her hold her head down from what felt like embarrassment. Normally, she was ignored, and she preferred it that way, now, all eyes were on her and the turian that followed, and it made her heart feel strange.

After walking around that maze of the ship, she finally found the Commander's quarters. It was a surprise that he'd settled in so quickly, but then again, he was probably used to moving around so much. He'd been in the military longer than anyone she knew.

She rang on his buzzer then the door opened. The room smelled of cologne and used thermal clips. It was empty, with only one picture of a woman and a young girl sitting on the nightstand next to the bed.

The commander made eye contact with her, then with the large turian that had trailed in behind her. He looked at him with a disgruntled face almost as if he'd was planning to kill him right then and there, but he stopped himself.

She saluted him and he waved his hand, his way of telling her to stop with the formalities.

"Good work, Shepard. A live turian is a great find,"

"Thank you, sir," she said with a bit of a nod.

The Commander stood from his desk and stood face to face with the turian, or something close to it. This turian was even taller than the commander, and he was the tallest person she knew. He began looking him up and down, "Can it speak."

"He has a translator, sir,"

"Good," he made a shooing motion with his hand, "Get it out of here, see what you could learn from it."

"Yes sir," she said.

And she was suddenly alone with the turian once more. All alliance ships were equipped with cells for reasons similar to the reason that she carried handcuffs, incase they were to find a turian to take prisoner, but the cells were hardly ever in use. Most of the time, the young recruits would play around and lock themselves in one, only for the commander to make them sit in there for a few good hours before using the access code to get them out again.

He walked with his head down, not speaking a word. She supposed that the realization had just now hit him that his life was in her hands and that he'd given himself up willingly. She'd always heard that turians were very prideful. Prideful enough to be willing to die in battle, but not to die by their own hands.

"Can I get you something?" She asked after having slammed the door.

"You're kidding, right?" He said, his voice echoing in the practically empty room.

"I can't say that I am," she sighed, "I need you alive and hopefully, comfortable enough to talk."

She could see his piercing blue eyes through the darkness of the cell. The way they seemed to follow her every move and never leave her. They were cold, angry, sad, they were full of life. Unlike hers, which felt almost dead and soulless.

"Where are you taking me?"

She shrugged, "I don't have the slightest idea. This move was a last minute thing."

"What are you going to do to me?"

"I'm not going to do any," Jane said, "But the other's, I don't know."

"Do you know anything?" He voice was seething with irritation.

She shrugged again, making him grunt. Truthfully, she didn't much care about what was happening to him or where the were going. Her life was in a sort of autopilot, where everything looked the same and everything felt the same. Because of this, she wasn't able to make out minor differences in life.

She left the turian alone to his ranting, and instead went to the crews quarters. Just like the last time, there were a ton of bunks placed in one room so that everyone could fit in easier, only this time, they were placed on a ship instead of their makeshift base.

Sleeping on ships was easier for her. The way it seemed to sway back and forth lulled her to sleep like a baby. It was taking everything out of her to not toss herself onto the bed and take a night's rest that she very much deserved. Tragically, she had many other things to do.

The turian was brought onto their ship so quickly because they were to be leaving soon, but he still had to go through processing. He had to be examined for diseases and scanned for chips and he had to be cared for to a certain extent. At least enough to keep him from dying.

She dropped her weapons and armor onto a random bed, claiming it as hers, then she made way to the medical lab. They'd need an actual doctor to do the examination, not someone under trained like herself.

The doctor sat at her desk, working quietly amongst herself. She had short gray hair, but very few age lines, if any at all. It already appeared that she had her hands full, every bed in the lab was full of injured patients, all with different levels of injuries. The lowest being a bullet graze and the highest being riddled with holes from the turians, he was barely breathing.

"Doc," Shepard began and the woman faced her, "I need a medical examination. For the turian."

The doctor nodded and stood from her desk. She wasn't one to speak often, but when she did speak, the things she said were important. She followed Shepard back to the cells and unlocked the door.

The turian didn't move a muscle when Dr. Chakwas approached him. Jane stayed in the doorway, acting as a guard in case he tried anything. His eyes fell upon her once more for a brief moment before shifting uncomfortably back to the doctor.

The wound on his shoulder was bleeding less, but it was still bleeding. It surprised her that he was still able to keep his eyes open, making her believe that turians were able to lose more blood than humans. That or he was just too afraid to allow himself to pass out and be vulnerable in front of them.

He winced when the doctor began cleaning the wound, but didn't outwardly say anything. Only gritted his teeth and looked up at the ceiling.

"I know it hurts," Dr. Chakwas cooed, "But it's all I have to clean it. We can only hope that it's compatible for turians."

"You don't know?" He yelled, pushing the woman back with his cuffed hands.

Shepard drew her gun again, aiming it square at him. His eyes shot from her to the doctor, who was now trying to catch her barings. Her fingers glossed over the trigger, like she was threatening him and he calmed down slightly.

His chest was heaving, from the anger and the sudden rush of adrenaline, "I've seen what can happen when we ingest things that we aren't compatible with and it's painful," he explained, "I'd rather not die like that just because you tried to clean my wound."

Dr. Chakwas nodded, but Jane didn't put her gun down. Now knowing that he would have outburst, she had to keep a close eye on him. They only had one doctor and she doubted that they would get another one in time, she had to protect the one they had, even if that meant killing their valuable asset.

She tightly wrapped his wound in bandages, but blue blood had already began to seep through it. It wasn't enough to begin to drip out, but it showed that he hadn't fully healed just yet.

"I'll be back to check on it tomorrow," the doctor said to him and he grunted in response, "Jane, give it the scan for me, would you?"

She dropped her gun in surprise as the woman walked by, "You want me to do it?"

"I don't feel very comfortable around it," was all the doctor said in response, leaving Shepard alone with the turian once more.

"I'm going to need to you stand up," she groaned and he did as he was told. Yet again, showing how his height was far superior than hers.

She opened her omni tool, military issued like everything else she owned, and she began to scan the turian. These scans took a long time, depending on how in-depth you had to go with it. Of course, since this was a prisoner of war, she had to go very very in-depth, down to scanning areas that she wouldn't feel to comfortable with.

He flinched a little when she reached his neck, despite the fact that there was nothing there. It had to be a turian thing, she told herself, either that or her scanner was too primitive for whatever he was hiding in her.

"Your name's Jane Shepard, huh? I'll remember that for when I go home. The woman who captured me was Jane Shepard," he said almost suddenly, cutting through the silence.

"You know my name?" She replied nonchalantly.

"I heard it get said a couple of times,"

She looked up at him to meet his gaze, then back down at her omnitool, "Strange considering I don't even know yours."

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because it'd just be a kind thing to do,"

"Like I'd want to be on good terms with someone like you," he snapped.

"Why are you so childish?" She said, a snarl beginning to form on her face.

"Childish?" He chuckled, "is that what you call it?"

"Yes, it is. Do you have a problem with it?"

He pulled back a bit from the scanned, making her grab the chains of his cuffs to hold him in place, "I have a lot of problems with what is going on right now."

"You must think that I enjoy what I'm doing too,"

"It sure seems like you are," he said, whilst lifting his arms slightly to show the cuffs.

"This isn't fun for me either,"

"Then just let me go,"

She shot a glare at him, "And be labeled a traitor? Do you know what that'll do to me?"

"You'd finally be on good terms with one of the best turians in the fleet,"

"Oh great, that'll really help me keep from getting a dishonorable discharge and shunned for the rest of my life, thanks,"

Now finished with her scan, she turned to leave. So far she knew that she hated this turian more than she hated most other people. It made her wish that someone else had found him so that he could be another person's problem and not hers. Or even, that no one had found him at all, so that he could die alone on the ground filled with corpses or crawl his way back to his base. She didn't care either way.

She slammed the door to his cell and watched him shuffle back into a comfortable sitting position, not letting his eyes lose contact with hers.

As she began to walk away she heard something. Him saying something just beneath his breath, barely audible.

"What was that?" She grunted.

"Garrus," he sighed, "My name is Garrus."


	2. Plans

The next morning was as dreadful as every day had been for her. The night before was one where sleep had come easier for her due to the rocking of the ship, but her dreams were ones that were unpleasant.

She dreamt of the never ending war that she was going through and the Earth finally being taken over by the turians. Then she dreamt of the Turian. Of Garrus. Of how his piercing blue eyes and large hands would eventually be the things to take her life.

He had a gun aimed at her chest, one of his three fingers against the trigger. She was begging for her life, why she was begging she didn't know because she didn't care, but she begged anyways. No words came out though and he shot her anyways. The bullet pierced through her left breast, through her heart and she was awake once more.

It was early, she didn't know how she knew it was early seeing as everything looked the same in space, but she knew. No one else was awake and she supposed that everyone just slept easier when they were in a ship. They were on their way to a planet, one covered in snow and blizzards.

It was once a turian mining planet, but climate on the planet suddenly changed and went to the harsh one that it was today. The turians abandoned it after that leaving it as the human's way to get closer to Palaven, the turian homeworld and base of operations.

She didn't feel to comfortable with this mission. Fighting turian scouts in a blizzard? Her vision would be impaired and her movement limited. All others seemed happy with the idea of fighting on a winter planet, they thought it would be easy, but they knew nothing about what it was really like. With snow up to their knees and being fired at from all directions. The snow also hurt the turians, she could tell by how more shots were missed than usual, but it wasn't helpful to anyone.

She felt the ship shake a bit as it landed and the swaying stopped. Almost instantly, everyone was awake. She could hear the way their hard beds shifted when they moved and stretched with their morning tiredness. It was instantaneous, without a thought, feet began hitting the floor and people began suiting up in their armor.

She too began to get dressed for the long day that she was prepared to have, only having a short shower l. For once in her life she had a lot on her mind, things that she could not control that she actually cared about. Or, she sort of cared about. She knew the quicker she got dressed the quicker she'd have to deal with these things that were not in her control, theses things that actually affected her life.

A hard slap came down up her shoulder, she was already groggy and disoriented so this nearly knocked her back over. She looked back at the culprit and he gave her a smile, the normal charming one that he gave to everyone.

"Better not forget to feed your pet, Shepard," Kaidan joked.

It wasn't the first time he'd ever spoken to her, if anything he talked to often, she just rarely spoke back, but he just kept talking. It was just the type of person that Kaidan was.

The charming boyish type with good manners and a great face. The female soldiers seemed to love him, but her eyes never looked at him the way the others did. To him, he looked just like everyone else, normal. There was nothing special about him to her, but then again, there was nothing special about her either.

"I won't," she replied and he cocked his eyebrow, surprised that she actually spoke back for once.

She brushed past him after saying this, not wanting to talk to him any longer, but he followed. She didn't look back to see if he was still there, but she could hear his footsteps, still trailing close behind her.

"How'd you find a live turian," he questioned, almost with a childlike wonder.

She turned the face him, then back she turned her attention back to the celled hallway, "I stepped on him."

"Pretty nice find,"

Jane typed in the code for Garrus' cell, not even knowing if he was awake of not. She supposed she just wanted the conversation to be over to the point where she was willing to jump into another awkward conversation with her turian prisoner.

Garrus sat slumped over in the corner of the dark room. The air was cold, colder than the rest if the ship due to the lack of a heater. His eyes just barely fluttered open, but they somehow still managed to pierce through her.

"They're uglier up close," Kaidan said with his arms crossed.

She looked at him, then back after Garrus who scoffed weakly, "I wouldn't know." She replied.

To her, Garrus looked like every other turian that she'd ever fought. She couldn't say she found him ugly or attractive, she just found him to be normal. The only thing that made Garrus different was his eyes, and how they seemed to so full of many emotions at one time, how they were just as cold as the room they were in.

"You're calling me ugly-" Garrus' voice was hoarse, rough, and a few octaves lower than usual, "-when you look like that?"

Kaidan gave Jane another rough pat on the back, apparently, that was how he comforted friend. She didn't much like it, but she doubted they'd talk enough for her to explain that to him.

"I've gotta go," he grunted, his glare falling upon Garrus, "turians to kill." He finished, then left her in the presence of Garrus alone.

"That your bondmate?" Garrus asked her.

"Bondmate? What the hell is a-" She began, but she shook her head, not wanting to know, "Are you hungry? Thirsty?"

"Cold," he murmured.

"In a full suit of armor?"

He opened his mouth to say something, but let it close back. Whatever he said must've been too important for her to know, but at the same time, she couldn't bring herself to care. If it really meant something, she'd get it out of him later.

"I'll bring you a blanket," she spoke then she closed his cell door, leaving him alone in the dark once more.

She went into the supply closet and ripped a spare blanket from the pile that was kept in there. The blankets were heavy and itchy, but they were warm, and it would do until she didn't have to deal with the turian any longer.

Tragically, she knew that she might end up being stuck with him for a long time. How long had the war been going on? It'd been years since it'd started, almost ten to be exact, and there was still no sign of stopping. They could just give the turian back to his planet or the citadel, but there'd be no way to do so without the alliance convincing themselves that he had some sort of information that would turn the tides on the war. So, he was stuck with them until the war ended or until the day he died, and neither seemed to be coming up soon.

She opened his cell door once more and tossed the blanket in to him. It landed somewhere in the darkness, she didn't really care, but if he really wanted it, he would crawl around and look for it.

He grumbled something that sounded like a thank you, then she slammed the door once more. Honestly, taking care of him seemed like the easiest part of her day. Now, the hard part would be maneuvering in knee deep snow.

The door to the ship opened and she and everyone else beside her shivered. The chilled air hit the inside of the airlock and no one moved. She was the first to step out and sink into the snow, and the others followed sheepishly, as if she were in the lead.

The Commander never officially put anyone in charge on missions like these, one's where combat would likely be limited. Even so, the other crew members always seemed to listen to her every order like she was ranked above them, even though she wasn't. It made her wonder if they knew something she didn't.

"What now?" A random soldier asked her and she shrugged.

"Spot turians, kill them. If you see anything that's important, relay it back to the commander. Should be easy enough,"

Even though she said this, they acted like they knew not what to do. The moved with sluggishness and nearly tripped over their own feet many times. She was actually afraid that one of them would fire their gun off on accident, but chose not to ask whether or not they had their safety on. If the turians saw them like this, they'd think that they were a joke and fire on them without thought. They weren't even threatening enough to have a message sent back to higher commands, it was honestly disappointing.

The wind blew snow onto her face. She would have worn a helmet, but it impaired her vision, she needed to see more than anything right now. Even if she were cold, she'd rather be cold and able to see.

Up on top of a flat hill, she heard gunfire. Rabid, as if it were coming from all over. She pursed her lips, not knowing if she'd be met with friends or foes when she walked up that hill. Even if they encountered other humans, they could be dangerous mercs or slavers, so contact was unknown.

Yet again, the others looked upon her for guidance, but she didn't have anything. They needed to provide support for those who were left, but that would only work if there was someone left to give support to. They couldn't just rush into open fire without knowing who was out there and when looking put upon her shaking group of soldiers, she knew no one was willing to sacrifice themselves to look.

The fire grew slower and her heartbeat increased, she wasn't scared, but her body was reacting on its own. Tell her to reach safety before something bad happened. She didn't listen to it.

"Stay low," she whispered as she crouched down and began climbing up. Her feet crunched in the snow, but she did her best to quiet it. She didn't want to be heard before she knew who was there.

The ground team followed her like a litter of lost puppies. She wasn't supposed to be in charge and yet everyone was acting like she was. Of course, she was the most trained out of all of them. It just made sense for them to look up to her, but they talked themselves up so much that she just expected them to be better their jobs.

They peaked their heads up to see a lone human standing on the hill top. He stood amongst a large amount of bodies, some turian some human. He was breathing heavily, the adrenaline had finally worn down and he was left with the aftershocks. He was the only one left.

Shepard stood from her crouch, raising her weapon above her head to show him that they were friendly. His eyes looked dead and blank, completely devoid of emotion, almost like hers Those same dead eyes fell upon her and she gave him a weak smile, her lips barely curling.

"Am I the only one?" He asked, his voice seemed to be shaking, maybe because of the cold, maybe because of the fear.

"We don't know," Shepard tried to assure him, "You're the only one we've seen so far."

He glanced down at the bodies that lay in the snow. Blue and red blood seeped into the snow beneath his feet, bodies seem to be piled up for miles and miles in a never ending gruesome sight.

"Do you-" he began, "Do you have a ship?"

Shepard nodded, " Right down there," she tilted her head in the direction of the ship, "What squadron are you with?"

"I'm not alliance," he said.

"Not alliance?" one of the soldiers in the back asked.

"He's a merc," Shepard explained.

He tilted his head down in what seemed like shame, but didn't speak. There was a cold silence that rested upon the entire group as the cold wind howled to fill said silence.

"We'll see what the commander wants to do with you."

"What about everyone else?" He asked.

She looked down at the bodies, watching them bleed out with no life left in them, "I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do for them." She said this knowing that they had one of the best doctors in the alliance. Dr. Chakwas was good, but she couldn't bring the dead back.

He bit his lip to hold back tears and followed her back to the ship. The others insisted on staying behind to make sure that there would be no other turian surprise attacks, so she was left alone with him. He was practically sobbing when they made it back to the ship.

That was the difference between a merc and a soldier. Both lost people, but only a merc was allowed to cry. When soldiers lost a loved one, they were allowed ten minutes of sorrow, after that, it was back to work. No closure, no rest, no nothing.

So she didn't consider him weak for crying. On the contrary, she considered him to be stronger than most. Being able to hold up his composure throughout the entire battle while his friends fell one by one. It must have been hard, but he did it.

They reached the mess hall and he took a seat. He was shivering. Unlike her he wasn't wearing highly elaborate military issued armor like she was, and he only realized how cold he was after he'd gotten some place warm.

"I'm going to go get the commander," she said, "There's a restroom over there, incase you want to clean yourself up."

She left him alone after that, in no rush to get the commander, she knew he needed time to get himself back. She went to check on Garrus instead, to see how he was doing.

Unlocking the door to his cell and peaking inside, her eyes were greeted with him wrapped tightly in his blanket. He was shivering, but also trying to hold it back, most likely to show strength.

He looked at her and she just stared down at him. No words were spoken, but it was obvious that something was going to be said. She just hadn't figured out what. There was time to spare and nothing to do.

"Do you need another one of those?" she asked in reference to the blanket.

"That would be nice, thank you,"

She was a bit surprised by his sudden manners, but didn't let her expression show. Instead, she went down the hall and grabbed the blanket for him, tossing it into his cell. He nodded a thanks to her and didn't say much more.

"Are you sick?" She asked. He seemed to have been weaker now than what he was just earlier in the morning.

"Just cold," he responded.

"The cold does this to you?"

He nodded, "We turians were born and raised on palaven. It's extremely hot there, so of course we never adapted to cold environments. I'm not sure how you humans can just handle it."

"We have season changes," she said.

"You have what?" He asked. She wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

"Earth doesn't just stay one weather. It's not always cold and it's not always hot. It changes every few months,"

"That explains so much," he whispered to himself.

"Happy to help," she said, then she closed his cell door, leaving him alone to think about it.

She finally went to talk to the commander. Thinking that the man had enough time to get any emotions he was having out of his system.

After buzzing the door to his room, there was a long pause.

"Enter!" He finally said and she stepped into his room.

"Any new information?" He asked, not even concerning himself with who was in his room. He most likely just knew it was her. She was the only one not afraid of him.

"We found a human merc a little bit aways from the ship. He and his team got in a fire fight with a group of turians. He is the sole survivor,"

"Does he know anything about the turians?"

"I was waiting for you before I asked because I didn't want to relay any information improperly. He's in the mess hall."

"Good work, Shepard," he said with a nod whilst stepping past her, "You've made a few good finds in the last few days, keep it up."

She trailed slowly behind him, he compliment he'd given her echoing in her head. She did good. She'd never heard that before, from anyone. That she'd actually did something good. It made a bubbly feeling rise from her stomach. One that was pleasant yet unpleasant at the same time.

They met the man in the mess hall. He had dried his tears, but the area around his still had a red hue to them. The commander sat down across from him, and Jane stood a short distance behind him, almost like an advisor.

"What's your name?" The commander asked, his voice just above a whisper.

"Jacob. Jacob Taylor," he managed to stress out.

"We'll I'm Commander Hackett, and this is Jane Shepard, someone I trust," the commander motioned towards her.

Taylor nodded in response and the commander continued on.

"We can take you to whatever planet you want to be left on, even the Citadel, if you consider it safe enough. All we need to know is if you know something about the turians, any information at all."

Jacob nodded, "Me and my group-" he choked the words out, "we were paid upfront to go to an abandoned base on that planet. They said it would be an easy job, probably like two or three turian scouts, but it wasn't like that."

"What happened?" The commander asked.

"It was an ambush. They came from all sides, surrounded us. Asked for our superiors names, I guess they thought we were alliance. We'd found something on that base. Plans of some sort. We all saved them to our omnitools and that's when the ambush happened.

"It started out as a few turians, nothing much. Then they called for reinforcements and they just kept calling them. They really didn't want this information getting out. But we threw a few bombs, some of my teams sacrificed themselves and after that, no one was left. No one but me."

"Do you know what these plans were for?" Jane found herself asking.

"They were plans to attack earth. Directly."

The commander looked at her, deep within her eyes. They showed fear, but mainly anger. She'd never seen him feel so heavily before.

The commander grew up on Earth, as did she, so it was only normal that he would want to protect it with everything he had. Their experiences on Earth were very different, he wasn't rich, but he'd lived a better life there than she did. Hence why she didn't care as much about the planet as she should have.

"Torture that turian. Now." He growled through his teeth, "Kill him if you have to, but get whatever information you can."

"Yes sir," she said as a loyal soldier would, but something deep deep inside of her was hesitant.


End file.
